Minneapolis Restaurant Reviews

Blue Moon Coffee Cafe



Blue Moon is a cozy, woman-friendly, community coffee shop decked out in purple paint, Christmas lights, and well-aged furniture from the seventies. Pick up any local publication on their shelves or peruse the bulletin boards for a new activity or a used bike. The beverage list is extensive, but don't go here expecting much in the way of fresh food --though you can grab a tasty prepared sandwich or a rice krispie treat if you're hungry. Don't hesitate to bring even small children here -- the cafe provides oversized legos and games to help entertain them.



Blue Moon Coffee Cafe
3822 E. Lake St.
Minneapolis, MN
612.721.9230
Blue Moon Website



Second Moon



If you can't get enough of Blue Moon, check out Second Moon. Here you'll find fewer children, more men, and local artwork on the walls.

Second Moon
2225 E. Franklin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612.343.4255



Blue Nile

Correction: In my earlier post on the Blue Nile, I incorrectly stated that the restaurant
was white-owned, information I got from a resident of Minneapolis.  Thankfully, one of
the restaurant's managers emailed me the real story:

Blue Nile is wholly owned, and has been since
1989, by the Katabay family, who are Ethiopian on their father's side
and Yemeni on their mother's, who still does a great
deal of work in the kitchen. The food is as authentic
as the rest of them. The family spent a great deal of
time living in other countries in the region, such as
Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The Blue Nile is the longest running African-owned
restaurant in the Twin Cities.

Impressions from my visit:
Its interior retains the decor of its previous occupant (seemingly a Mexican restaurant), and we were the only people in the huge space at prime dinner time (to be fair, it was a Monday).

This restaurant was different from the Ethiopian restaurants I've visited in LA in that I didn't recognize a lot of the dishes, which was a nice change. I enjoyed my food, but then, I've never had Ethiopian food I didn't like. One of the vegetarian dishes tasted like refried beans though, which I thought was odd (but it went with the decor). If it hadn't been cold and rainy, I would have preferred to trek to one of the many African restaurants in downtown Minneapolis (we were carless).



Blue Nile
2027 E. Franklin Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612.338.3000
Blue Nile website



Places I wanted to try but didn't get to:

Tam Tam
I have only been to one other pan-African restaurant in my life (Nyala), so I was curious to try this pan-African place to learn more about cuisines other than Ethiopian.

Dashen Ethiopian Cuisine
One woman prepares all of this restaurant's food herself--an incredible feat, if you ask me. As if that weren't enough, her restaurant is supposed to be more authentic than the others. If you'd like to find out how authentic the Ethiopian food you normally eat is, check this place out. You can also buy small containers of her dishes along with fresh injera at the Seward Co-Op.